2015 FINA World Championships: Day 8 Prelims Preview

2015 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Pool swimming: Sunday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 9th
• Prelims 9:30AM/Finals 5:30PM (Local Time)
• Kazan Arena Stadium
• Kazan, Russia (UTC+3 hours)
• Full Coverage
• All Sport Medal Tables
• Live Stream (Universal Sports)
• Schedule and Results

Men’s 400m IM

The men’s 400 IM will kick off the final day at the 2015 World Swimming Championships. The top three seeds all have question marks beside their name heading into this event, as top seed Tyler Clary missed the final in the 200 fly and finished 7th in the 200 back, the event in which he is the defending Olympic champion. 3rd seed Daiya Seto is the defending world champion in this event, but has also had a disappointing meet. He was supposed to be a medal contender in both the 200 fly and 200 IM, but ended up finishing 6th in the 200 fly and just 14th in the 200 IM. Both Clary and Seto will look to leave this meet with something positive to take away from the 400 IM. 2nd seed Chase Kalisz is also somewhat of a question mark because we have yet to see him compete at these championships. Kalisz was the silver medalist in 2013, but had a disappointing NCAA season this year where he failed to defend his NCAA title in this event. The man coming into this event with the most confidence is probably Dan Wallace (GBR). Wallace had terrific performances in the 200 IM heats, semis and final breaking his own Scottish record in each swim and ultimately finished 4th in the final in 1:57.59. He was also part of Great Britain’s gold medal winning 4x200m freestyle relay. Kalisz will swim in the 4th heat, along with David Verraszto (HUN), Thomas Fraser-Holmes (AUS), Sebastien Rousseau (RSA) and Roberto Pavoni (GBR). Verraszto is the 3rd fastest man in the world this year at 4:11.28. The 5th and final heat will feature Wallace, Clary and Seto, along with Yang Zhixian and Huang Chaosheng of China. Zhixian comes into the meet with the 8th fastest time in the world this year, and Huang has the 6th fastest. Both will be threats to make the final. One notable omission from this event is Brazilian Thiago Pereira. Pereira won bronze at the last World Championships in this event and is coming off a silver medal performance in the 200 IM. Due to Pereira’s absence, Brazil’s only swimmer in this event will be Thiago Simon swimming in heat 4.

Women’s 400m IM

Katinka Hosszu will be in search of her third World Championship title in the 400 IM on the final day of these championships. She won the event in both 2009 and 2013. Hosszu will be looking for her third medal of the week after winning gold in the 200 IM and bronze in the 200 back. I expect she’ll also challenge Yi Shiwen’s world record of 4:28.43. There will be 4 heats of this event going off, with Germany’s Franziska Hentke swimming in heat 2 after her 4th place finish in the 200 fly. Heat 3 will feature defending Olympic champion Ye Shiwen, along with Sydney Pickrem of Canada, Maya Dirado of the United States and Hannah Miley of Great Britain. Pickrem broke her Canadian record in the heats and semi-finals of the 200 IM and finished 6th in the final, so she is in the best form of her life. Dirado also had a good 200 IM, finishing 4th, and Miley was 5th. Hosszu will swim in the 4th and final heat, along with Hungarian teammate Zsuzsanna Jakabos, Aimee Willmott (GBR), Elizabeth Beisel (USA) and Emily Overholt (CAN). Beisel has medaled in this event 2 times at the World Championships, including a gold in 2011, and will look to do win a medal again here after missing the final in the 200 back. Overholt failed to advance out of the heats in both the 200 and 400 freestyle, but will look to make her first World Championship final in her best event. Overholt originally won the Pan American title in this event earlier this summer before being controversially disqualified, with the title switching hands to American Caitlin Leverenz. Overholt swam a 4:35 in that swim, which was a new Pan Am and Canadian record for a short time, but is seeded at 4:39.47 due to the disqualification. That was a bizarre session at the Pan Ams where both 400 IM gold medalists got disqualified.

Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay

The last men’s relay of the meet will have 4 heats to determine who makes it onto the final. The first heat will have just three teams, including Germany who should make a run at the final. They won silver at the 2009 World Championships, bronze at the 2011 World Championships and were 4th at the European Championships last year. Their team will most likely consist of Jan Philip Glania, Hendrik Feldwehr, Steffen Deibler and either Paul Biedermann or Marco Di Carli on freestyle. In heat 2 we will see Canada, Great Britain and France. The Canadians will try to ride the momentum after their relay medal in the mixed 4x100m free. The team will consist of Russell Wood, Richard Funk, Santo Condorelli and Yuri Kisil. Great Britain will also try to ride their own momentum, as they have golds in both the 4x100m mixed medley and the mens 4x200m free. Their team will most likely consist of Chris Walker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty, Adam Barrett and either Ben Proud, Scott Duncan or Robbie Renwick on freestyle. They could potentially use Liam Tancock on back and Ross Murdoch on breastroke in the prelims as well. The Brits won gold at the European Championships last year. France won silver at the Euro’s last year, and are also the defending world champions. Their team will likely consist of Camille Lacourt, Giacomo Perez-Dortona, Mehdy Metella and Fabien Gilot. Jeremy Stravius and Florent Manaudou could potentially show up in either the heats or the final as well. Heat 3 will feature Italy, Brazil and Australia. The Aussie team is likely to consist of Mitchell Larkin, Jake Packard, Jayden Hadler and Cameron McEvoy. Australia won silver at the World Championships in 2013. In the final heat we will see the United States, Japan, Hungary and Russia. The American men will be looking for their first relay gold medal of the meet. It will be interesting to see if they use Matt Grevers or Ryan Murphy in the preliminaries on backstroke, or even David Plummer who was 9th in the individual event. Kevin Cordes will probably have breastroke duty in the prelims, but it could be given to Cody Miller who has swam well here in order to save Cordes for the final. Fly will be Tom Shields and freestyle Nathan Adrian. Ryan Lochte could potentially show up in the prelims in either fly or free as well. After missing the final in the 4×100 free we can expect the US to use most of their top guys in the prelims. Japan won bronze in 2013, and should be strong as well, but maybe not as good as they have been in the past with the absence of their breastroke ace Kosuke Kitajima. Hungary won bronze at the European Championships last year, and Russia was 5th. Poland will also swim in the 4th heat, and they were 6th at the Euro’s last year.

Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay

The final preliminary event of the meet will be the women’s 4x100m medley relay. Heat 1 of 3 will feature Great Britain, Sweden and China. Sweden and Great Britain both won medals in this event at the 2014 European Championships, with Sweden winning silver and the Brits winning bronze. Sweden will be particularly strong in the breastroke and butterfly, with 100 breast finalist Jennie Johansson and 100 fly champion Sarah Sjostrom on their side. The Brits should be strong, but lack a 100 breastroker after Sophie Taylor withdrew from the meet. China will look to medal after just missing out in 4th in 2013. In heat 2 we will see Canada, France, USA and Russia. The Americans will be strong with Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy and Simone Manuel likely taking the back, breast and free legs in the final. It is unclear who they will use on butterfly, but I suspect they will use Katie McLaughlin in the final and probably Kendyl Stewart in the prelims. Kathleen Baker and Micah Lawrence could also potentially swim backstroke and breastroke in the prelims, and Margo Geer or Abby Weitzel will most likely swim freestyle in the heats. Russia will look to defend their bronze from 2013. In the final heat we will see Japan, Netherlands, Denmark and Australia. Australia will be strong as they have 100m back and 100m free champions Emily Seebohm and Bronte Campbell on their side. They will probably use Madison Wilson and Cate Campbell in the prelims to save them for the final. The Aussies won silver in this event in 2013. Denmark won the 2014 European Championships, and will be very strong here. They have 100 back bronze medalist Mie Nielsen, 200 breast world record holder Rikke Pedersen, 100 fly silver medalist Jeanette Ottesen and Pernille Blume on freestyle. The Netherlands were 4th at the Euro’s last year, and will be look for a good showing here with strong legs on every stroke other than backstroke. Japan was 5th in 2013.